Neoconservatism
Neoconservatism combines a domestic conservatism with an assertive foreign policy that uses military and economic power to spread democracy and defend liberal allies. It favours strong defence spending and is sceptical of international institutions that constrain national action.
- Democracy and liberal values should be actively promoted abroad, including by force if necessary.
- Strong military power is essential to national security and global order.
- Domestic policy should support markets and traditional values, without dismantling the welfare state entirely.
Neoconservatism began among former leftists in the United States in the 1960s and 1970s, such as Irving Kristol and Norman Podhoretz, who turned against the New Left and Soviet communism. It influenced Ronald Reagan's foreign policy and, after 2001, George W. Bush's "war on terror" and the invasion of Iraq.
Critics point to the Iraq war as evidence that military democracy promotion leads to costly and destabilising failures. Realists and paleoconservatives argue that it overextends national power.
Countries and historical regimes whose 12-axis profile is closer to Neoconservatism than to any other ideology in the test.
Historical regimes
Neoconservatism is also the second-closest ideology for: Singapore, Pinochet’s Chile.
Method: each ideology is placed at a typical position on the 12 axes, scored from 0 to 100 toward the first pole. Ranks compare it with the other 45 ideologies; matches are 100 minus the average distance across all axes. The positions are our own calibration, not taken from any third-party source.